Don Lemon Marries Partner Tim Malone In New York City Wedding
Don Lemon and his longtime partner, Tim Malone, jumped the broom Saturday (April 6) in a New York City wedding. After five years of engagement, the two married at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in Manhattan in a ceremony filled with traditions respective to their cultures.
PEOPLE magazine got the deets on the joyous occasion where Malone told them, “We wanted to make a public statement.”
He added, “We obviously could have easily gone to city hall. We could have used Covid as a perfect excuse to do something really quiet. But I think this is also a message. For I don’t know what percent of our guests, on both sides, but for a lot of them, it’s going to be their first gay wedding.”
The ceremony honored both parties’ wishes, which included Irish and African traditions. The newlywed husbands witnessed a unity candle be lit, as well as jumped the broom upon saying “I Do.” Additionally, the couple’s loved ones abided by the tradition of giving the pair “something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue.”
Per the outlet, the wedding saw approximately 140 friends and family, including famous friends like legendary music executive and producer Clive Davis, Ana Navarro-Cárdenas and Sunny Hostin from The View, Sex and the City creator Darren Star, Tamron Hall, Alec Baldwin and the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, who officiated the ceremony.
The two reportedly walked to the altar while Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed and Delivered” played in the background, before exiting with a New Orleans-inspired second line that marched all the way down to their wedding reception. Lemon is originally from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Lemon and Malone began dating in 2016 after attending an election viewing party together. “Tim and I looked at each other and I said to him, ‘I don’t want to be alone tonight.’ It was so weird,” Lemon recalled the memorable night that was also the night Trump won the election. “We went back to my apartment in Harlem and then he never left.”
The former CNN anchor basked in their commitment to one another while also reminiscing on a time when he doubted marriage.
“I never thought that I would get married,” Lemon said. “I mean, maybe Tim’s generation, he’s 18 years younger than me. So for him maybe it was more of a possibility. The legal part of it is a big deal because I didn’t think it could happen. And for so many years of my growing up and hiding things, I never thought it could happen legally. But when you consider all the rights that people are trying to take away, I wanted to make sure that we get this done right.”
Take a look at photos from Don Lemon and Tim Malone’s wedding above.
